Skip to content

Martin Luther King Jr. on Freedom

1929–1968 United States

← All quotes by Martin Luther King Jr.

15 quotes

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)

He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth.

Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)

Man is more than a producing animal guided by economic forces; he is a being of spirit, crowned with glory and honor, endowed with the gift of freedom.

Strength to Love (1963)

I say to you that our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom.

This is the type of negative freedom and resignation that often engulfs the life of the oppressed.

Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)

The third way open to oppressed people in their quest for freedom is the way of nonviolent resistance.

Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

I Have a Dream (1963)

Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil.

The Birth of a New Nation (1957)

This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

I Have a Dream (1963)

There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up.

Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."

Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

I Have a Dream (1963)

The absence of freedom is the presence of death. Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide.

Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Martin Luther King Jr. (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.